City Plans For Sewage Plant Removal

December 22, 2001|By JOSH KOVNER; Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Now that the city has snagged a famous architect to put form to an envisioned riverfront development, officials are turning their attention to a grittier task: removing the obsolete sewer plant sitting in the middle of the project area.

That process, which could take three years, involves rerouting the sewage to the Mattabassett District Plant in Cromwell two miles away. The district gave its approval in February to take the additional sewage (60 percent of the city's output already goes there) and the state Department of Environmental Protection supports the concept.

But Cromwell officials don't. ``It's the precedent,'' said Mary Konopka, a member of Cromwell's board of selectman and a town representative on the district commission. ``Taking the rest of Middletown's sewage could open the door for us to become the cesspool of Central Connecticut,'' she said.

The town last year hired an attorney to look into ways to challenge the additional flow.

``It's a political issue in Cromwell, but we're persevering,'' said Middletown Mayor Domenique S. Thornton. She said New Britain is taking steps to reduce the amount of sewage it sends to the district's plant, creating more room for Middletown's flow.

Friday, Thornton said the city is awaiting a state grant of nearly $100,000 for a study to determine how big the new sewer pipe would have to be and how much it would cost.

She noted that the DEP is encouraging cities and towns to reduce the number of water treatment plants. It only makes good environmental sense, she said, to pipe the rest of the city's sewage to a state-of-the-art facility and shut down Middletown's outdated plant.

Also, the plant is hogging 12 acres of prime riverfront land.

Renowned preservationist Arthur Cotton Moore will come to town Jan. 5 and 6 to walk the site, off River Road, as he prepares to do the conceptual drawings of the planned housing/shopping/recreational project.

Once he's done, city planners, politicians, land-use boards and the public will set the parameters for development on the planned 85-acre site. That input will help the city shape its requests for proposals from developers, said Planner William Warner.

The good thing about having Moore do the drawings, said Thornton, is that the city will be able to tell a developer what it wants to see on the riverfront, not the other way around.

City officials are also hoping that by the time they are ready to dismantle the sewage plant, the state Department of Transportation will be reconstructing the treacherous intersection of routes 9 and 17. Direct access to the riverfront site from the highway should make the project a regional attraction, Warner said.